In the eyes of most, pixels are pieces of information— information that takes the form of an identification metric, rgba. Rgba allows organic (like you or me) or constructed (like an ipod or a menu screen at taco bell) computers to recognize these pieces of information as points on a color plane, a notch in the scale of opacity. In turn, the title of pixel is designated only to pieces of information that can be plainly read as color— I suspect you nor I would fare well as a pixel.

But maybe we would— we are accustomed, you and I, to being made plain, to being forced into the mind-bending paradox of becoming a set of numbers and letters that all at once could not begin to explain the complexity of our being, but at the same time most accurately reflects how we are understood through the eyes of a computer, either organic or constructed. Upon reflection I am entirely guilty of not really taking the time to be with a pixel — to ask how it relates to the other pixels that surround it, or how it might view itself in relation to the world, in relation to the numbers it has been assigned.

the tool below is hopefully a way you might be able to spend time with pixels. upload an image and use the tools and sliders to organize pixels with things like warmth, brightness, or math.